VICTORIA— A bi-partisan parliamentary committee unanimously agreed that the Christy Clark government has to start creating and keeping public documents on important government decisions.

“Christy Clark’s government has taken secrecy to a whole new level in B.C.,” said New Democrat leader John Horgan. “Her government avoids creating documents and paper trails at all costs. They go as far as using post-it notes in the premier’s office, and the finance minister himself claims that he doesn’t use email at all. It sounds ridiculous, but that is how extreme things are with the Christy Clark government.

“When documents are created, the Christy Clark government does whatever it can to destroy them so that the public never finds out important information, as seen with the triple delete scandal. Christy Clark’s transportation minister admitted to triple deleting, and a former top Christy Clark government staff person is on trial for charges related to this scandal.”

The new report from a committee made up of both B.C. Liberal and New Democrat MLAs makes recommendations that would help address the culture of secrecy in the Christy Clark government. For example, if the committee’s recommendations are implemented, those involved in the illegal destruction of responsive records would face fines of up to $10,000.

“During the process, the Christy Clark government tried to block some of the recommendations that the committee members felt needed to be included in the final report,” said Doug Routley, Vice-Chair of the committee.

“For example, the Christy Clark government felt that they should be able to police themselves when it came to document destruction for all government agencies, not just core areas. My New Democrat colleagues and I disagreed, and we were pleased to see B.C. Liberal government representatives on the committee side with us, break rank from their party, and reject government’s attempt.

“I sincerely hope the Christy Clark government acts on these recommendations, and doesn’t continue to operate in their culture of secrecy.”

The report can be found here: http://bit.ly/1T6RTe9